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Vital dust : life as a cosmic imperative

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Status	Format	Access	Call Number	Item Location
Request for On-site Use Request Scan How do I pick up this item and when will it be ready?	Text	Request in advance	QH325 .D42 1995	Off-site

Description

xix, 362 pages : illustrations; 25 cm

Summary

At the heart of Vital Dust is the concept of seven increasingly complex "ages" of life on Earth. With each age, de Duve shows the key event that defined the age and the new event that led to the next. He argues that simple, deterministic chemical reactions put life on track but that other mechanisms led inexorably to greater complexity and biodiversity: the development of a lock-and-key system that serves as the universal device of biological recognition at the molecular level; the emergence of a common ancestor of all organisms, from amoebas to humans; the great oxygen holocaust; the conversion of some bacteria into complex cells; and the successive improvements in reproductive strategies that made possible the spectacular diversity of life on Earth.
The author guides us on a wondrous journey through the past four billion years, from the formation of the first biomolecules to the complexities of the human mind, from microscopic chains of amino acids and nucleotides to cataclysmic events in distant galaxies, arriving at the compelling conclusion that the universe is strewn with "vital dust" capable of spawning life anywhere under the right conditions. Life and mind are not accidents; they are natural manifestations of matter.

Subjects

Bibliography (note)

Contents

Introduction: The Unity of Life; The Tree of Life; The Antiquity of Life; The Cradle of Life; The Probability of Life; Foresight Excluded; The Ages of Life -- Pt. I. The Age of Chemistry. Ch. 1. The Search for Origins. Ch. 2. The First Catalysts of Life. Ch. 3. The Fuel of Emerging Life. Ch. 4. The Advent of RNA -- Pt. II. The Age of Information. Ch. 5. RNA Takes Over. Ch. 6. The Code. Ch. 7. Genes in the Making. Ch. 8. Freedoms and Constraints -- Pt. III. The Age of the Protocell. Ch. 9. Encapsulating Life. Ch. 10. Turning Membranes into Machines. Ch. 11. Adaptation to Life in Confinement. Ch. 12. The Ancestor of All Life. Ch. 13. The Universality of Life -- Pt. IV. The Age of the Single Cell. Ch. 14. Bacteria Conquer the World. Ch. 15. The Making of a Eukaryote. Ch. 16. The Primitive Phagocyte. Ch. 17. The Guests That Stayed -- Pt. V. The Age of Multicellular Organisms. Ch. 18. The Benefits of Cellular Collectivism. Ch. 19. The Greening of the Earth. Ch. 20. The First Animals.
Ch. 21. Animals Fill the Oceans. Ch. 22. Animals Move Out of the Sea. Ch. 23. The Web of Life. Ch. 24. The Virtues of Junk DNA -- Pt. VI. The Age of the Mind. Ch. 25. The Step to Human. Ch. 26. The Brain. Ch. 27. The Workings of the Mind. Ch. 28. The Works of the Mind. Ch. 29. Values -- Pt. VII. The Age of the Unknown. Ch. 30. The Future of Life. Ch. 31. The Meaning of Life.

ISBN

0465090443 :

LCCN

94012964

OCLC

ocm30624716

Owning Institutions

Columbia University Libraries